Our free automation audit costs $0. Describe one repetitive task, and we reply by email within one business day with one buildable idea: how it would start, which tools it would use, the steps involved, and the risks. A call is optional. You can keep the written plan whether or not you hire us.
The most useful thing to send is a short account of the work as it happens now. You do not need a finished process map or a list of AI tools. This guide gives you a brief to copy, shows how we would turn it into a proposed workflow, and explains what the free review can establish before anyone gets access to your systems.
Choose one task with a clear finish
Start with work someone can describe from beginning to end. “Fix our operations” is too broad to assess from a form. “When a new inquiry arrives, copy it into our CRM and assign someone to reply” has a starting event, a destination and a person responsible.
Good candidates include chasing a missing document, preparing a recurring report, moving approved invoice details between tools, or reminding someone about an appointment. Pick the task that causes a repeatable delay or consumes time you can roughly count.
If several jobs feel equally urgent, choose the one whose current steps you know best. Our article on the first automation mistake explains why choosing a tool before understanding the work causes problems.
A task brief you can copy
Use these prompts in the task box on the free audit form. Short answers are enough; leave anything unknown marked as unknown.
| Prompt | What to write |
|---|---|
| Task | The repeated job and who does it |
| Start | The event that makes someone begin |
| Tools | The apps involved, with plan names if you know them |
| Steps | What gets read, copied, checked or sent |
| Volume | How often it happens in a normal week |
| Time | Active staff time, separate from time waiting for someone |
| Exceptions | What makes a case different or blocks completion |
| Approval | What a person must decide before work continues |
| Finish | Where the completed record or result should appear |
| Owner | Who should hear when the task fails or gets stuck |
You can submit less detail and still request the audit. These prompts help us make the answer specific without asking you to share live records.
A tool name matters more than a category. “CRM” could mean software with an existing connector or an older system that only allows exports. If you know the product and plan, include both. We still need to verify the permitted connection before promising a build.
Describe the task and your tools. We will suggest one buildable idea by email within one business day.
Example: a property manager's maintenance inbox
The following is an illustrative brief, not a client story or a forecast of results:
“We receive maintenance requests in a shared Gmail inbox and enter them into our property management software. A coordinator checks the property, issue and urgency, then assigns a vendor. Requests sometimes lack a unit number. We want complete requests recorded once and incomplete ones held for review. Staff must decide whether an issue is urgent and approve vendor dispatch. The coordinator should see anything the automation cannot process.”
That description gives us enough to propose a bounded first workflow:
- 1Detect a new request in the agreed inbox or supported intake channel.
- 2Extract the fields needed for a draft request, preserving a reference to the original message.
- 3Check that the property and unit match the team's records. Send missing or ambiguous details to the coordinator.
- 4Check whether the same request has already been recorded before creating another draft.
- 5Put the draft in the supported destination and leave urgency decisions and dispatch with staff.
- 6Record completion or alert the coordinator when a step fails.
The connection to the property software is an open question until its access options are checked. The audit can identify that dependency; it cannot prove from a description that a particular account permits the write. For a fuller version of the operational problem, see automating maintenance request intake.
What comes back in the email
The published audit offer includes one specific idea, the trigger and steps, named tools, risks and limits, and a rough effort estimate. It is a one-page written plan. The effort estimate distinguishes a setup in tools you already own from work that needs a larger build.
For the example above, the recommendation could be to improve the intake form before adding an AI reading step. If incomplete messages cause most of the rework, collecting a unit number at the start may be the better first change. Where the task follows fixed rules, we would look at workflow automation. Where two systems need to exchange records reliably, the main work is systems integration.
A rough effort estimate is not a fixed-price implementation quote. The free reply also does not include a deployed workflow, a tested connection, or a review of every process in your business. Those require a separate scope. Our project process guide explains what happens if you decide to build.
Send the process, keep sensitive records out
Do not put passwords, API keys, patient records, bank details or other sensitive data in the form. Describe the types of fields the task uses instead. “Patient identifier and appointment time” explains the handoff without exposing an actual patient's information.
The form allows an optional Loom or screen recording link. If you use it, make a demonstration with invented records and check every visible tab and notification before sharing. You can explain the same steps in writing if a safe recording would take extra work. There is no need to grant account access for this initial description-based review. See our privacy policy for how submitted information is handled.
How we judge whether the idea is worth pursuing
An idea needs a recognizable output and someone who can check it. This is also how practical workflow tutorials are structured: n8n's first workflow guide separates the trigger, data retrieval, transformation and saved output, then checks the result during testing. That structure is useful even if your eventual build uses another platform.
For your task, tell us what would count as a useful change: fewer unassigned inquiries, fewer records entered twice, or less time preparing a weekly report. Keep active work and waiting time separate. An email that waits overnight is a delay; it is not eight hours of staff effort saved.
Before buying a build, measure a normal week's volume and hands-on time. Our automation ROI guide shows how to use those inputs. You do not need that calculation finished to request the free idea, and the audit does not guarantee savings.
When a different first step fits better
Use the free audit when you have one task and want to know what a sensible first fix might be. If you need several departments mapped, systems examined and projects ranked before choosing one, read what the paid readiness assessment includes. It is a separate offer with a larger scope.
If the task happens rarely, the process is about to change, or a setting in an existing tool handles it, a custom build may be unnecessary. We will say so when that is our recommendation.
Request the written idea
Open the free automation audit, describe the task and select the written-plan option if you do not want a call. Include your tools and the exception that causes the most rework. We reply within one business day.
Offer details and the linked n8n documentation were checked on November 1, 2026.
